Trauma

In a CDC article it was written that when children have a traumatic event in their lives if the trama is not dealt with, over time the trauma settles in the person and takes hold. This article showed that of the people who contract Auto Immune Diseases such as multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis, Hashimoto's thyroiditis, pernicious anemia, Addison's disease, systemic lupus erythematosus, Sjögren's syndrome , lupus erythematosus, Graves' disease and celiac disease if the people were abused as children, their likely hood for contracting these diseases raise 70-100%. I was floored--trauma in childhood actually creates inflammation and autoimmunity in adulthood. It makes sense, the kids I see at JDC are riddled with medication for behaviors. But is medication the answer, medication I feel is the easy way--- medication helps to cover up but never really treat the symptoms that these kids deal with everyday.

Think about it, these kids, most of them have come from ridiculously hard childhoods, and they are still children! If you are 14 and for over 10 years you have dealth with abuse and neglect that is all you know, it becomes a part of you, and your body doesn't know what to do in order to fight disease, it esentially shuts down and you become a shell, a lost , broken shell of a person who in order to be "dealt" with gets medicated so that the people in your life, can deal with you.

I shared this information with the kids this week, it was a raw time for them, not many people discuss their past, it seems that the system just wants them to "pull it together enough" to float through their day in a cloud of medication.

Yoga, helps these kids understand that they are not patterns of abuse, not an abandoned child, and so much more than their laundry list of medication.

One girl, on Monday was very clued into this line of thinking, she has had a life that no adult could live through and shes 13!! Her entire life has been riddled with abuse of a physical nature, abuse of a mental nature, abandanment from everyone she knows, and she sits mouth hanging open from her medication that is used to "calm" her. She has been a girl who really doesn't try-- life has shown her you don't have to-- her body understands that if it just is "quiet" then she gets through her day-- that is her coping skill-- just get through the day so she can take her alotted Ambien and fall into a coma like sleep. But Monday, she perked up, she told us many things about herself, she felt safe, and after a few poses of opening, she broke down, and lifetime of trama began to break free. She felt safe. She explained it was her first time crying since she could remember. Her beautiful heart, that had been wrapped in guilt, and trama, and medication, let a flicker of light in, and she saw herself for the first time as a beautiful human being.

I explained to the staff that this was a break through, that for the rest of the night, she will be vulnerale, and need someone. They didn't get it, they may never get it, but a break through for that moment will cleanse this sweet blossom for a long time. Yoga gave her the strength to remember her sweetness, yoga brought about a beginning of the healing, Yoga opened the door to her heart. I am humbled and blessed to be part of this beginning.